This paper presents a rapid assessment of current and likely future impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on rural economies given their socio-economic characteristics. Drawing principally on current evidence for the UK, as well as lessons from the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak and the 2007/8 financial crises, it outlines the likely key demand and supply effects, paying attention to the situation for agriculture as well as discussing the implications for rural communities. A distinction is made between the effects on businesses offering goods and services for out-of-home as opposed to in-home consumption. Gendered dimensions are also noted as likely business and household strategies for coping and adaptation. The paper concludes with a brief mapping of a research agenda for studying the longer-term effects of COVID-19 on rural economies.

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This paper explores the ways in which businesses use and create diverse forms of rural capital, as an attempt to better understand the distinctive characteristics of "rural businesses". We present three cases to explore the features that might lead us to describe them as being distinctively "rural businesses". This adds to the debate about whether location alone is a sufficient parameter for defining rural-ness. The business cases were each established in rural areas of northern/central England. The cases were selected to fit an existing categorisation of rural businesses based on personal knowledge about the companies. Data was gathered through a combination of interviews and secondary materials. Our findings indicate that the employment of forms of rural capital is a key dimension along with the locations of firms and their markets, in distinguishing "rural businesses" from others. A clearer understanding of specifically "rural" characteristics of businesses can guide policy towards approaches that deal with rural challenges and support for businesses to harness characteristics and opportunities connected to rural places. We assert that such approaches would be better tailored to local conditions than broad-brush spatial policies. They also aid understanding of the dynamics of change in rural communities driven by local business development.

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